I just wanted to take a moment to thank you, our readers and fans for all of your support over the years. Without you, we wouldn’t be here. I started Technabob out as a side project while I had a full-time “real job” and literally no budget – working all hours of the night and the wee hours of the morning scrounging for cool stuff to write about. Over the years, we’ve managed to grow the site enough that I was able to quit my full time job, focus 100% on blogging, and actually make a decent living at it. It’s thanks to your readership and loyalty that I can feed and clothe myself, pay for health insurance, and our small, but dedicated team of writers. I know many of you dream of working for yourself some day, and this little blog here is proof-positive that if you put your mind to something, you can really achieve your dream.

As a result of our success, I even have been able to expand our tiny blogging empire, with the launch of The Awesomer (shameless plug time) – which features all tons of cool stuff, like smokin’ fast cars, slick industrial design and art, funny videos, action-packed games, movies, and even a smattering of gadgets and tech. It’s a true showcase for creativity and generally awesome things. If you haven’t checked it out, you should. It’s pretty addictive if I must say so myself.

You’d think that with 10,000 posts under Technabob’s collective belts, there wouldn’t be much else to say, but we’ve only just nicked the surface on the world of cool gadgets, gizmos, games and weird science. Thankfully, there’s no end to the creativity and ingenuity of mankind.

Thanks again. Geeks reign supreme!

Paul Strauss (aka technabob)
Owner, Editor, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer
Technabob | The Awesomer

When not blogging about the latest gadgets, toys and robots, he is usually playing Killzone 3 and dissing you in a Helghast voice while he frags you. Conner also enjoys modding old video game consoles and attained brief internet fame by combining an Atari 2600 with a Guitar Hero guitar.
Like any geek, Conner also has a love of retro and new toys, so his latest project is a new geek toy store over at ecrater where he hopes to make many geeks happy by making sure they remain kids forever.

He looks forward to joining the team. In fact, when he heard the news, he got all teary-eyed, holding up an Oscar and saying “You like me. You really like me.” and “Yo Adrian! We did it Adrian!”

When he ran out of famous quotes and saw that no credits were going to roll to the triumphant end-of-movie soundtrack in his head, he simply stopped his foolishness and went back to writing.

When she’s not busy  spelling her name out in pictures, she enjoys sitting down in front of the computer and scouring the world wide web for the latest innovative gadgets and tech news while a whole lot of Taylor Swift (her musical flavor of the month) plays in the background.

Hazel’s first brush with the internet was in a dingy internet cafe at the basement of a mall around a decade ago, where she patiently waited for web pages to load at a snail’s pace on the 28.8 Kbps connection. Sad to say none of them loaded on Netscape (yes, it was still quite popular then) after her paid hour was up.

Hazel has a Chemical Engineering degree under her belt which is a career (and course) that’s as serious as its name suggests. However, for all things fun and crazy, she turns to writing and other exploits to bring a bit more sparkle and pizazz into her life.

Let us end this post with a moment of silence while we remember Princess, Hazel’s virtual Old English Sheepdog that has recently passed away after several years of neglect while she was working for her said degree. May it rest in peace.

All tolled, we published over 2,400 posts this year, bringing our total since we launched in 2006 up to over 7,000 posts. Wow. Our fingers are tired, but it was worth it. We know that not all of you visit every day (we wish you would – why not subscribe to our RSS Feed?), so I’ve compiled a list of the Top 1 percentile of posts of 2010 (based on traffic) for you guys to enjoy…

#1: Best Starcraft Ghost Costume Ever

#2: Nintendo Cartridge Soap: Why is My Console Foaming?

#3: iPhone 4 Price, Release Date and Specs

#4: New Xbox 360 Slim Price, Release Date and Specs Revealed

#5: Sonic Nausea: They Won’t Know What Hit ‘Em

#6: Notion Ink Adam Price, Specs Beat iPad

#7: Alt/1977 Envisions Today’s Tech, Yesterday

#8: The Smartest Business Card on Earth

#9: Darth Vader and Princess Leia Aprons: Force Cookin’

#10: War Machine Costume: Ready for Cosplay Battles

#11: Playstation Move Price and Release Date Move Into Focus

#12: Geek Tattoo: the Cyborg Underneath [NSFW]

#13: Lost: 8-Bit Style

#14: The Truth is In This Intersection

#15: Star Wars Goes Out on the Town, Victorian-Style

#16: LG Serie 1 Retro Classic TV: Everything Old is New Again

#17: Playboy TRON Photo Shoot Released: Geek Fantasy Fulfilled (NSFW)

#18: Sesame Street Fighter

#19: Scientists Discover a Real-Life Pac-Man: It Died From a Power Pellet Overdose

#20: Lara Croft vs. Slave Leia Snowball Fight: ‘Nuff Said

#21: iPhone 4 Jailbreak: So Easy, You Can Even Do it at the Apple Store

#21: Gigantic Crane Lifts Korean Battleship Out of the Water!

#23: iPhone 4 Metal Back Replaces Fragile Glass

#24: 10-Foot Gundam Made From Leftover Model Part Trees

There’s a little something for everyone on the list – gadgets, geek art, cosplay, sexy geek girls (several of those – surprise!), retro cool stuff, and generally fun stuff. Be sure to check them all out. I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. Think of it as a late Christmahanakwanzakah gift.

Thanks for another great year. It was an exciting one, and Technabob continues to grow thanks to you guys. We ended the year with over 6.66 million unique visitors (what a devilish statistic!), and over 10 million pages viewed on the site. Be sure to stop back by in 2011 for all sorts of cool new toys – starting with next week’s 2011 CES show coverage.

The new version of the app provides many of the same conveniences, aggregating stories from top websites, and providing a slick, iPhone-friendly UI for browsing news. The iPhone version of FLUD pulls in stories from up to 25 RSS feeds, displaying recent stories in a convenient aggregate home view. Then, with a simple swipe from right-to-left, you can see dedicated landing pages for your selected sites. As you skim stories, you can quickly and easily favorite or share posts, and also toggle between the simple RSS mobile version of the site and the web version.

Here’s a quick demo video showing off FLUD for iPhone v1.0:

Click to View Embedded Video Clip

The guys at FLUD have also been kind enough to feature our humble little site as one of the easily-selected defaults in the app. How nice of them. Just look for Technabob in the Featured section under “Technology”, and then move us to the top of the list under “My Feeds”. Actually, you don’t need to do that part, but it’d put a smile on my face if you did.

Best part, is that FLUD is free. You can grab a copy now over at the App Store (opens iTunes), or get more info over at FLUD’s website.

You might have noticed from the above picture that he has an unusual taste in fashion. He assures us that this isn’t his everyday attire (though it was suggested that this may be due to a lack of similar clothing). Rather, when he’s not trying to go for a Steampunk look or some other form of cosplaying at a convention, he’s pretty much a jeans and t-shirt kind of guy.

If you’ve never heard of ArtRage, it’s really is a spectacular (and reasonably priced) art application. It provides beautiful digital simulation of oils, watercolors, markers, pencils and other natural media. And despite its tremendous depth (with features like layering, stencils, stickers and blending modes), the interface is easy enough for beginners to dive in right away and start creating art. To give you an example of what’s possible, here’s an image (far beyond my feeble talents) created by ArtRage community member BoxFree.

The Pro version includes support for wet blending of paints, and Photoshop filters among other things. Both versions of the app work great with Wacom or Adesso drawing tablets, but I’ve also really enjoyed using it with my HP Touchsmart, where I figured out you could paint with real brushes! If you really want to see how well it works, there’s a great gallery of creations made with ArtRage here. You can also grab a 30-day demo copy to play with. But you really want the full version, right?

So back to the contest….

We’ve got 10 copies of the full ArtRage 3 Studio ($40 value each) to give away – either PC or Mac version, and all you need to do for a chance to win is post a comment below, telling us what feature of ArtRage 3 you’re most excited about. To get you started, check out the features list here. To be considered for the drawing, you must provide a valid comment and e-mail address (Limit 1 submission per e-mail or IP address, junk/spam entries will be disqualified). We will pick 10 random winners from all valid entries. It’s that easy! The contest will end at 11:59pm Central time on 5/26/2010, so get your entries in now!

[ArtRage]

Shane is a full time geek who’s in search of a room full of monkeys who can take over for him so he can live his lifelong dream of playing video games all day. Technically, this is his second lifelong dream, writing full time and getting paid was his first. Shane writes for a slew of websites covering all manner of tech, gadgets, and computers and has written reviews that were published in Laptop Magazine and Computer Shopper.

When you have a spare second, be sure to say hello!

If you missed any of these posts during the year, be sure to click some of the links below and check them out. And if you did read them already, you rock!

1. bet you can’t do this with blu-ray: awesome cassette tape portraits
2. sky news samples 6 computer repair shops in london: guess how many tried to scam them?
3. super mario cake goes the extra pipelength
4. guy builds daft punk helmet for his kid brother, making every kid on the face of the earth jealous
5. iphone 3gs price, release date and specs announced
6. console x-rays: how to get inside your video game system without voiding the warranty
7. philips cinema 21:9 ultra widescreen perfect for movie snobs
8. psp-3000 hacked: one small step for hackers, one giant step for homebrew
9. tiny living room makes its way inside pc
10. nopopo batteries: hey pee, I see urine my battery!
11. lego starcraft II units: more detailed than the real (virtual?) thing
12. pac-man on twitter
13. aperture science van tooling around, scaring the hell out of people
14. somniloquy: the future will be filled with environment-friendly pirates
15. sony psp go pics leaked
16. sparkly usb bracelet stores memories on your wrist
17. recharge your gadgets with a hand crank
18. lego usb hubs offer colorful, stackable connectivity
19. barnes & noble nook price and release date announced
20. donkey kong junior shower is truly bananas
21. dell inspiron mini 9 netbook price drop to $199
22. u-fizz makes anything fizzy and bubbly
23. the 8-bit computer is back, ready to hack, and plays nes games to boot
24. fc mobile 2 the best portable nes gets a 1up
25. $15,000 1989 collector’s item legend of zelda… plate.

Thanks again for a great year in 2009, and be sure to keep coming back in 2010 for more cool gadgets, games and gizmos.

He currently writes for Apartment Therapy/Unplggd, and is pursuing a graduate degree in Mathematics in Taipei, Taiwan. He’s been a DJ, radio host, and journalist in the past. He likes photography, notebooks and abstract math. He enjoys reading and writing hard science-fiction.

He’s married to a redhead and has got a beautiful little French bulldog named Spike. He’s currently living in Taiwan, but planning to move back to the US in a year or two.

If you’ve got a second to spare, leave a comment below, and say howdy to Range.

Clearly he loves his high-tech gadgets as much as we do.

Recently Pedro has packed his bags and moved from his home city of NYC to a small town in Tennessee in hopes of finding a better life. So Pedro will be writing for us while he hunts for a “real”  job.

On the other hand, if you’ve slept in line waiting for the latest wonderphone, know your Kindle from your Nook and can tell the difference between LCD, OLED, LED, and SED, you could be the one.

You’ll need to be able to source (at least some of) your own stories, and demonstrate both technical knowledge and a keen grasp of the English language. You’ll also need to have some experience using blogging software like WordPress, and be able to do some basic image cropping and scaling using Photoshop or something along those lines. You’ll also need to stick to a regular posting schedule of 2+ posts a day. If you’re already writing for another blog, that’s cool too – you just will need to provide original content for us.

You’re not going to get rich writing for us, but it’s a great opportunity to do something you enjoy, get exposure for your writing, and build up industry cred for your resume.

If you think you’re up to the challenge, just e-mail an appropriate writing sample or two to tips@technabob.com, along with your contact information. Be sure to include a brief e-mail explanation of why you think you’d be a good fit for the Technabob editorial team. You get extra points if you tell me what the Satio, QRIO and Mylo all have in common (besides the letter O).

[image: Journal of the Good Girl]

The guys over at The Battle have put technabob up against French style and tech blog Geek & Hype in the global battle for Best Tech Blog. With your votes, I know we can kick their butts. Heck, you probably can’t even read French.

To vote, click the image above or head on over to The Battle of The Blogs between now and September 27th. Tell your friends. Tell your enemies. Tell your grandma who doesn’t even have a computer.

And while you’re in the mood for showing you care, friend us on Facebook or Twitter. We won’t stalk you. I promise.

Student journalist. Avid video game player. Contributor extraordinaire. Aviator aficionado. Chris fancies himself an enigma wrapped in mystery, a creature of diversity who despises perpetuating nerdy stereotypes.

Currently, Chris is a student of journalism and English at Rutgers University. And while Chris’s experience may lie primarily with video games (he currently reports news at Kombo, writes a biweekly column at The Wiire, contributes to Geekadelphia, and runs his own gaming blog new game +) he is a multi-faceted geek. Not many people have the audacity to print out a photo of Chris Pine as James T. Kirk, take it to their hair stylist, and request that they make him pretty enough to command the Enterprise.

But Chris did.

Besides video games, Chris adores science fiction, robots, katanas, and almost anything set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

If you guys have a second to spare out of your busy lives, please drop a comment below and welcome Chris to our evil little empire.

Then be sure to follow us on Twitter:

http://twitter.com/technabob

For conversation with the Technabob staff, your fellow readers and special things we don’t always feature on the site, stop by our Facebook page and become a fan:

http://www.facebook.com/technabob.

Tell your friends, tell your enemies, tell your grandma!

If you have a couple of minutes to spare, I’d really appreciate it if you guys would fill out a brief Reader Survey. We’re looking for your input on the types of articles we write, new content you’d like to see, and your overall feelings about the site and our  plans.

It’s you guys who have helped to make Technabob a success over the last 3 years, and I’d love to hear your honest feedback on how you think we’re doing. We’ll never get better if we don’t listen to our readers!

Everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a drawing to win a $50 Amazon Gift Certificate. The last day to take the survey is July 15th, 2009. (you must be over 18 to enter)

[Take the Technabob Reader Survey]

So without further adieu, here are the top 25 posts (based on overall traffic) on technabob throughout 2008. If you haven’t read all ‘em, you owe it to yourself to click on a few of the links below and check out as many as you can:

1. it’s people. tetris is made out of people!
2. word clock slowly reveals the time with text
3. robot drummer has plenty of rhythm
4. rubiks mirror blocks puzzle bumps out of the cube
5. clock combines digital, analog worlds
6. gamer shirts: cheaper than games, better than plain shirts
7. play any nes game for free in firefox with firenes
8. nes system built into game cartridge
9. ninja bunnies keep your headphone cords in check
10. tomy i-sobot shoots an arrow straight through my heart
11. das keyboard: no letters = faster typing
12. link knit amigurumi: cuter than a bowl full of kittens
13. make your own monster brings your horrible drawings to life
14. miwi game console is nothing like a wii, really.
15. wasp knife will stab your victims then freeze their organs
16. super mario bento boxes make mouths happy
17. classic arcade games excel in spreadsheets
18. the world’s smallest nintendo ds lite
19. bbq grill casemod: now we’re cooking with gas
20. katamari wedding cake: with this ring i thee roll
21. pac-man cupcakes make mouths happy
22. iphone + piano = iano
23. led cube displays 3d images in color
24. computer cases get faces
25. guitar hero: get in my pocket

So there you have it. All told, over 5 million pages were viewed on technabob this year. All I can say is wow. And thanks. We couldn’t do it without you.

Thanks for a great 2008, and I hope to see all of you guys again in 2009.

Alisha comes to Technabob after a long history of blogging, and she will be working her poor fingers to the bone to bring you lots of weird and wacky geek content.

She currently writes for Wii Fanboy, DS Fanboy, and Tiny Cartridge, and she is also pursuing a bachelor’s degree in English at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Her most important job, however, is helping her husband chase after their ten month old son, Jack. He’s not a gamer (yet), but he does like to make zombie noises. Alisha is very proud.

In the four minutes of spare time she has in the middle of the night, Alisha also writes fiction, but never, ever poetry. The world is a better place without her poetry, which once killed a kitten at fifteen paces.

If you’ve got a second to spare, leave a comment below, and say howdy to Alisha.

Lambert is a Creative Writing major at the University of the Philippines, where he has been an undergraduate for as long as the current Philippine president has been president. Physically ugly but lyrically handsome, Lambert is willing to sell his future children if Dave Eggers, Dave Barry, David Sedaris and Dav… Conan O’ Brien would get together and make a book, a movie, a sandwich, anything, as long as they collaborate.

He’s glad to be part of technabob and hopes to make more things for you to read and comment on.

Also, Cash for laptops says that his iBook is worth $5. Which is why he thinks it’s amazing what $5 gets you these days, considering the brokers with their hands on their faces type of economy we face today.

You’ll need to be able to source your own stories, and be able to write with wit, sass, attitude or at least be slightly charming. You’ve also got to be consistent. I’m looking for people who can write 7 to 10 posts a week, maybe more if the readers fall in love with what you have to say. A solid grip on the English language is also a must. You should also have at least some experience using blog software such as WordPress, Blogger or Movable Type – and basic image cropping and sizing in Photoshop or other image editing tools is required.

Now before you get dollar signs in your eyes, I’ll tell you that blogging for Technabob won’t make you a millionaire. But it’s a great opportunity to expose your literary talents to hundreds of thousands of readers each month.

Want to give it a shot? Pick a topic that you think will appeal to Technabob readers, and send along at least two appropriate writing samples to tips@technabob.com. Be sure to include your contact information, and a brief note on why you’d be the perfect addition to the Technabob crew.

I look forward to reading your submissions.